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Five Things the “Nuclear Bros” Don’t Want You to Know About Small Modular Reactors (blog.ucsusa.org)
submitted 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) by solo@kbin.earth to c/climate@slrpnk.net
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A realistic understanding of their costs and risks is critical.

What are SMRs?

  1. SMRs are not more economical than large reactors.

  2. SMRs are not generally safer or more secure than large light-water reactors.

  3. SMRs will not reduce the problem of what to do with radioactive waste.

  4. SMRs cannot be counted on to provide reliable and resilient off-the-grid power for facilities, such as data centers, bitcoin mining, hydrogen or petrochemical production.

  5. SMRs do not use fuel more efficiently than large reactors.

[Edit: If people have links that contradict any the above, could you please share in the comment section?]

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[-] Fermion@mander.xyz 39 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

There's so many people paranoid about the remote possibility of dirty bombs. Meanwhile, Norfolk Southern is actually spilling tankers full of toxic chemicals that get set on fire by being incredibly negligent.

If terrorists did want to poison an area, there's plenty of insanely toxic and commercially available compounds to choose from. The fixation on nuclear fuel is an indicator of someone who is just repeating a ghost story and doesn't actually know/care what the biggest sources of danger are.

[-] AnonStoleMyPants@sopuli.xyz 4 points 6 months ago

Though to be fair, using dirty bombs or radioactive material has waaaaay larger "fear" factor than a random chemical that kills just as well.

this post was submitted on 17 May 2024
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